Venom Vol 1 161
(Story) (Title) | NextIssue = (Story) (Title) | Editor-in-Chief = C.B. Cebulski | CoverArtist1 = Javier Rodriguez | CoverArtist2 = Álvaro López | Production1_1 = Alan Fine | CCO = Joe Quesada | President1_1 = Dan Buckley | Quotation = You're the Spider-Woman. We've heard of you. | Speaker = Venom | StoryTitle1 = | Writer1_1 = Mike Costa | Penciler1_1 = Javier Garrón | Inker1_1 = Javier Garrón | Colourist1_1 = Dono Sánchez-Almara | Colourist1_2 = Erick Arciniega | Letterer1_1 = Clayton Cowles | Editor1_1 = Devin Lewis | Editor1_2 = Thomas Groneman | Editor1_3 = Nick Lowe | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * ** * ** Antagonists: * * Other Characters: * * * * * * * * * * * ** ** ** ** * * * ** ** ** ** ** * Races and Species: * * * Locations: * ** *** **** ***** ****** Midtown ******* ******** ******* ******** ****** ****** ******* ***** ****** *** **** *** **** ***** *** **** ***** Items: * Alchemax Symbiote Blood Serum * * * Events: * * Venom Inc. | Synopsis1 = At Alchemax's corporate office, Liz Allan lambastes Eddie Brock for costing her company twenty-four million dollars' worth of irreplaceable equipment, destroyed during the struggle between Eddie, Flash Thompson, and Spider-Man over the Venom symbiote. Lamenting that she's had to commit insurance fraud to cover up her working relationship with Venom, she informs Eddie that all of the serum Dr. Steve was making had been lost. Eddie is initially horrified at this, as he only has two doses left, but Liz tells him that he no longer needs it: Dr. Steve ran a toxicology report that reveals that the Anti-Venom serum that Spider-Man doused him and Flash Thompson with repaired Eddie's altered metabolism. Liz remarks that she should bury him in a cell in Ryker's for forcing her to commit insurance fraud, and Eddie jubilantly invites her out for dinner. Later, as Venom gleefully web-swings over the city the symbiote jealously asks Eddie why he invited Liz out for dinner, remarking that it doesn't like her. Eddie assures it that he just wanted to celebrate their recovery and quips that it's a good thing Liz turned him down, adding that he's spotted another way they can celebrate their new beginning. In the street below, the Looter robs a rug store, cheerfully singing to himself. Venom lands behind him and towers over him menacingly, causing the Looter to have a panic attack and wet himself. Venom webs him up and assures him that this time he's not going to lose control, but the Looter is too traumatized by their last encounter. As Venom drapes Looter over his shoulder and prepares to take him to jail, Spider-Woman interrupts and says she was thinking of taking Looter to jail herself. Venom cordially acknowledges her, saying he's heard of her, and she retorts that she's heard of him too. The Looter cuts in and asks if Spider-Woman remembers him from the time she caught him stealing a tank, and Spider-Woman sarcastically retorts that he's the reason she's there: she spotted him casing the rug store earlier and tells him to get a haircut. Cracking her knuckles, Spider-Woman thanks Venom for wrapping Looter up and announces her intent to bring him in as well. Realizing a fight is inevitable, Venom tries to talk her down by pointing out that he hasn't tried to eat the Looter, which she acknowledges before uppercutting him in the chin. Venom tells her that she's making a mistake and asks if Spider-Man didn't tell her they just teamed up. Spider-Woman retorts that she's not Spider-Man's wife, that she hasn't spoken to him in weeks, and that the dozens of people Venom has killed won't come back to life just because he says he's redeemed. Angered, the symbiote demands they fight back, but Eddie replies that will only make things worse. As Spider-Woman mocks Venom saying he's sane in one breath and talking to himself in the next, Venom tries to web-swing away. She cuts his web-line with a bolt of electricity, causing him to crash-land onto a parked car. As he recovers, Venom admits he has killed people in the past and commends her respect for all life, snaring the Looter with a web-line and tossing him into the air. Venom escapes as Spider-Woman rushes to save the Looter from falling to his death, the symbiote lamenting they won't get credit for catching him. Eddie assures it he has an idea to change their reputation for the better. The next day, "Mr. Sym" meets with Jennifer Kao and tries to sell her on the idea of doing front-page exposés on Venom like the Daily Bugle does with Spider-Man. She flatly refuses, stating that the Fact Sheet's readers come out of fear and a hunger for the truth; and that far from being the misrepresented antihero "Mr. Sym" claims he is, Venom is a cannibalistic monster who she speculates was a government experiment gone wrong. Kao tells Eddie to write her that story, or one like his piece on Skrulls infiltrating the Yankees to humiliate New York. Disappointed, Eddie leaves her office, not noticing Spider-Woman spying on him. That night Eddie works out in his apartment, the symbiote sullenly remarking that it doesn't like Jennifer Kao either. Eddie tries to reassure it that she doesn't hate them, but the symbiote replies that she hates it. Eddie points out that Kao is just acting in the best interests of her newspaper and employees, suggesting they consider a way to convince her that portraying Venom as a hero will sell more papers than portraying him as a monster after they eat. A knock at the door sounds, and he approaches it thinking the food he ordered is in, remarking that was fast. Before he can open the door, Spider-Woman blasts a hole in it with electricity, knocking Eddie unconscious. She wryly points out how easy it was to track him down given how he can camouflage himself, noting that despite writing under a pseudonym he cashes his checks under his birth name. She grabs his ankle and starts to drag him out the door, remarking that she'd doing him a favor by putting him in jail since the next people to blow his door off its hinges will be shooting to kill, but the symbiote latches onto her hand. As it flows up her arm, telling her it won't let her take it to jail, she unsuccessfully tries to blast it off. As it bonds to Spider-Woman, the symbiote tells her it will convince her that it and Eddie are heroes by showing her their memories -- mostly pertaining to its various offspring: Carnage, Phage, Lasher, Riot, Agony, Scream, Hybrid, and Mania/Maniac. Spider-Woman collapses and the symbiote returns to Eddie, telling her it needs Eddie or it will lose control. Spider-Woman reluctantly agrees to leave Venom alone, telling the symbiote to keep Eddie in line and keep its nose clean. As she leaves, the symbiote ominously states she won't be alone. Eddie regains consciousness in the wreckage of his room, the food delivery person asking if he should call the cops. Eddie tells him not to and brushes the mess off as a cooking accident, asking the symbiote what happened after the delivery person leaves. As Eddie sits down to eat, the symbiote tells him it made Spider-Woman leave them alone by showing her that it is a hero, amending its statement to include Eddie. Eddie mulls this over and asks if the symbiote is hiding anything from him, and it states it would never hide anything from him -- deliberately omitting the fact that it's about to spawn again. | Solicit = TANGLED WEBS Part 1 • Cured of the metabolic disorder affecting the symbiote’s mental state, Venom is back to acting like his old Lethally Protecting self. • But battling your way through New York City doesn’t go unpunished, and Eddie and the symbiote are about to discover that the hard way… • ...when the wall-crawling super-sleuth SPIDER-WOMAN kicks in their door! | Notes = | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }} Category:Digital Comic Code included